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WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik has revved up his training in Youngstown according to chief trainer Jack Loew. “We are facing a real fast, quick challenger in Sergio Martinez on April 17,” Loew said. “Our focus is on speedwork which includes footwork in the ring and running up and down the steps at the Youngstown State football stadium. “Kelly hasn’t fought someone like Martinez before. He’s quick and he will move around the ring,” Loew said. “It’s not an easy fight and we know it. We’ve had great – really perfect – sparring in our gym. Kelly went 8 rounds yesterday, will go 10 today, then 12 rounds the next day. (more…)

WBC junior middleweight champion Sergio “Maravilla” Martinez (44-2-2, 24 KOs) of Argentina will step back into the ring on Saturday, April 17th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ against WBC/WBO middleweight champion Kelly “The Ghost” Pavlik (36-1, 32 KOs). This will be shown live on HBO world championship boxing and is being promoted by Top Rank in association with DiBella Entertainment. For more details and photos click here…

WBC heavyweight champ Vitali Klitschko (39-1, 37 KOs) met his next challenger, European beltholder Albert Sosnowski (45-2-1, 27 KOs) at the Bundesliga soccer match between Schalke 04 and Bayern at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Klitschko-Sosnowski will take place on May 29th at the state-of-the-art 61,000-seat stadium that features a retractable roof.

Ali “Rush Hour” Funeka might’ve been blindsided by three blind mice in his first fight with Joan Guzman, last November, but, Saturday night in Las Vegas, the man just about everyone but three Canadian judges had coming out ahead, plans to pull off a bang-up job in the rematch.

“Las Vegas won’t be the same as it was in Canada,” Funeka said on Wednesday before a limber-up workout at the Extreme Couture Gym . . . Click here for more

With only two days to go until the next Super Six World Boxing Classic fight the WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch is weighing up who is most likely to win and who he will be backing between former IBF middleweight title holder ‘King’ Arthur Abraham and Andre ‘The Matrix’ Dirrell. “I can’t pick a winner because it’s in the States. I really am 50/50,” said Froch of the second round fight. However when pushed, Carl leaned towards Abraham, urging him to beat Dirrell as Froch himself did in the first round of the Super Six after a split decision. Froch said: “It will either be a brutal KO by Abraham or a boring points decision by Dirrell with a bitch-like performance. Come on Abraham…catch him sweet!” Froch will be facing Mikkel Kessler on April 24th.

Boxing fans, get ready to climb “Through the Ropes” with the #1 boxing news radio show hosted by award winning boxing writer Marc Lichtenfeld! This week’s guests are Gary Shaw and Steve Cunningham. Call or email your questions to ttropes@earthlink.net. Through The Ropes airs live coast to coast on Thursday nights from 9:00 – 10:00 ET on 75 affiliates of the Sports Byline USA Broadcast Network, including great radio stations like KSHP 1400 AM in Las Vegas and WNSR 560 AM in Nashville. The one-hour show will also be heard on American Forces Network, Sportsbyline.com and Fightnews.com. Fightnews readers can listen live by clicking here tonight at 9PM ET.

The IBO super middleweight championship of the world is again up for grabs. Cameroon-born title-holder Sakio Bika (28-3-2), now a resident of Australia, was stripped of his 168-pound title for inactivity, according to International Boxing Organization President Ed Levine. Bika won the championship in November 2008; but did not defend it and had not fought since a one-round TKO of Nestor Casanova in a light heavyweight bout last July. Levine said a bout for the now-vacant title was “under final negotiation” and would be announced soon.

Jimmy Burchfield, president of Classic Entertainment and Sports, Inc. (CES), and cruiserweight contender Matt Godfrey’s promoter, has commented on the postponed Steve Cunningham-Matt Godfrey IBF cruiserweight title fight. The purse bid for Cunningham-Godfrey was won by Don King Productions and originally scheduled for March 19 in Florida and then switched to March 26 in Las Vegas. DKP issued a release March 17 postponing the fight. Main Events tried to resurrect the fight for the same date, but was unable to get Team Godfrey onboard. Burchfield explains why. (more…)

A new date of Saturday, June 19, has been set for the Super Six World Boxing Classic showdown between undefeated World Boxing Association (WBA) 168-pound champion Andre Ward (20-0, 13 KOs) and world-ranked contender “Sweetness” Allan Green (29-1, 20 KOs), Ken Hershman, Executive Vice President and General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports®, formally announced today.

The fight is co-promoted by Goossen Tutor Promotions and DiBella Entertainment and will be televised live on SHOWTIME beginning at 10 p.m. ET/PT from the Oracle Arena in Ward’s hometown of Oakland, Calif. (more…)

Argentine strongman Marcos “El Chino” Maidana (27-1, 26 KOs) returns to the US and HBO on March 27th to defend his WBA interim light welterweight title against number two ranked contender Victor “Mermelada” Cayo (24-0, 16 KOs) at the Joint, located in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“El Chino” burst onto the American scene last June, winning the interim strap in a spectacular five-knockdown slugfest against rising star Victor Ortiz . . . Click here for more

Unbeaten Filipino lightweight Al Sabaupan (10-0, 7 KOs) will be in action on April 17 when he will clash with Indonesian lightweight champion Heri Andriyanto (14-9-1, 6 KOs) over twelve rounds at the Ynares Arena in Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Sabaupan scored his best win in October 2009 when he outworked former world title challenger Josafat Perez (12-2, 7 KOs) of Mexico over ten action packed rounds. (more…)

During the first intermission of the Detroit Red Wings 4-2 win over St. Louis on Wednesday night, boxers Andre Dirrell and Arthur Abraham were introduced to promote their Super Six World Boxing Classic matchup on Saturday at Joe Louis Arena. The hometown favorite Dirrell from Flint, Mich., got the louder ovation. (more…)

Super Six World Boxing Classic standings leader “King” Arthur Abraham and Andre “The Matrix” Dirrell both took part in a media workout at Detroit’s famed Kronk Gym on Wednesday, just three days before they kick off Group Stage 2 of the Tournament on Saturday, March 27 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Mich., live on SHOWTIME at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast). Germany’s Abraham (31-0, 25 KOs) currently leads the Super Six point standings with three points by way of his last-second knockout against American Jermain “Bad Intentions” Taylor Oct. 17 in Berlin, Germany. The former middleweight bronze medalist at the 2004 Summer Olympics from Flint, Mich., Dirrell (18-1, 13 KOs) dropped a close 12-round decision to Carl Froch for the World Boxing Council (WBC) World Championship the same night in Nottingham, England.

This fight will be available to a record 54.4 million households as part of the SHOWTIME ALL ACCESS Free Preview Weekend on SHOWTIME, SHOWTIME HD™ and SHOWTIME On Demand. From Thursday, March 25 through Sunday, March 28, viewers across the country will have the opportunity to sample the premium network’s award-winning programming via linear service, On Demand and in HD, including two live events from SHOWTIME Sports. (more…)

Photo: Interim WBA Super Lightweight World champion Marcos Maidana hits the mitts today during a media workout held at the Extreme Couture Gym in Las Vegas. Maidana’s opponent, unbeaten Dominican Victor Cayo, South African Ali Funeka and unbeaten former champ Joan Guzman also held mini-workouts after talking to the press. On Saturday, Maidana-Cayo and Funeka-Guzman will be featured in a title doubleheader televised on HBO from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Vegas. Stay tuned for more photos and interviews.

Sensational welterweight prospect Mikael Zewski returns to action this Thursday night, March 25th at Fight Night at the Commerce 2 an outstanding evening of professional boxing presented by TKO Boxing Promotions at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.

Zewski’s fight will be shown LIVE on the Super Channel starting at 11pm, EST. (more…)

Legendary former world champion Erik Morales for Saturday night’s PPV show vs. Jose Alfaro in Monterrey, Mexico. “Losing so much weight in recent months isn’t going to affect me,” said Morales. “For two and one-half months we worked a lot on the technical issues but we also made the best effort trying to achieve peak physical condition. I also mean that I was six months into the plan to establish a steady weight loss and here are the results. We planned to work hard to get into top form and I reached it.” (more…)

All is ready for Saturday’s huge event in La Guaira, Venezuela billed as “El Desafio” (The Challenge) that features WBA bantamweight champion Anselmo Moreno of Panama against WBA interim bantamweight champion Nehomar Cermeno of Venezuela. In a second major bout, former double world champion Jorge “Nino de Oro” Linares returns against former world champion Francisco Lorenzo from the Dominican Republic. (more…)

Arthur Abraham and Andre Dirrell began their fight week activities today with back-to-back media workouts at the world-famous Kronk Gym in Detroit, Michigan. Tonight both fighters are participating in sweater presentations at the Red Wings-Blues NHL hockey game at Joe Louis Arena during the first intermission. They collide in the same arena on Saturday night in a do-or-die Group Stage 2 clash of the Super Six World Boxing Classic.

The already successful and popular series “Top Rank Live” will make its monthly stop in Mexico, this Saturday with a couple of very interesting match-ups in the 108-pound division when former world champion Ulises “Archie” Solis takes on Bert Batawang in an 108 pound IBF world title eliminator battle the takes place at the “Plaza Pueblo Antiguo” in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.

In the co-feature current WBA mini flyweight world champion Giovani Segura (23-1-1, 19 KOs) of Ciudad Altamirano, Guerrero, Mexico will take on Roland Ramos (28-7-3, 14 KOs) of Colombia in a 10 round non title bout. (more…)

Undercard fights are set for the April 3 Bernard Hopkins-Roy Jones Jr. pay-per-view card at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The co-feature will be a ten-round showdown between Jason Litzau (26-2, 21 KOs) and Rocky Juarez (28-5-1, 20 KOs) for Litzau’s NABF super featherweight title. Also featured is the return of former junior middleweight world champion Sergio Mora (21-1-1, 5 KOs) against veteran Calvin Green (21-4-1, 13 KOs) and unbeaten Ukrainian prospect Ismayl Sillakh (11-0, 10 KOs) steps up to face 175-pound standout Daniel Judah (23-4-3, 10 KOs) in another NABF title bout, this time in the light heavyweight division.

Three-time world welterweight champion Antonio Margarito will make his 2010 debut during Cinco de Mayo weekend, in a 10-round super welterweight rumble, against Texas toughman Roberto “La Amenaza” Garcia, headlining Latin Fury 14. Promoted by Top Rank, in association with Zanfer Promotions and Tecate, the four-bout Latin Fury 14 will be broadcast Live on Pay-Per-View, on Saturday, May 8, beginning at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT, from Aguascalientes, Mexico, which will be celebrating the San Marcos Fair.